


Delta Gamma (but not like the Sororities)

by SpaceWaffleHouseTM



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: A Fourth Designation in the A/B/O verse, Alpha Ben Solo, Alpha Rey (Star Wars), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Bisexual Ben Solo, Bisexual Rey (Star Wars), Bisexuality, Co-workers, Delta Ben Solo, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Fuck Buddies to Lovers, I'm Sure it'll happen, Mating Cycles/In Heat, No Pregnancy, Omega Ben Solo, Pegging, Smut, friends to fuck buddies to lovers?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:47:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24154552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceWaffleHouseTM/pseuds/SpaceWaffleHouseTM
Summary: Alpha Ben Solo has lived with his roommate and fellow Alpha-coworker Rey for three years. For all three of those years, things have remained strictly platonic.Then Ben experiences his first heat, becoming one of only one hundred people with a fourth classified designation:Deltas.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 85
Kudos: 501
Collections: Queerly Beloved Reylo Fics





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This one was inspired by a twitter conversation with [VioletWilson](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violetwilson/pseuds/Violetwilson) and [tourmalinegreen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TourmalineGreen/works) on twitter in which they encouraged me to write this :D thanks y'all.

After five years of working at Resistance Enterprises, Ben Solo had realized one thing: board meetings were always the worst part of his day. He could’ve tried to claim it was the stale coffee someone always brewed in the morning and the others drank out of a vague attempt to be nice, but no, it was board meetings. Maybe it was the Adhd and maybe it was just the fact that Armitage Hux’s voice was the most irritating thing he’d ever heard in his entire life, but board meetings grated on his skull like nothing else. 

Perhaps the only thing that made them bearable was the one other person who hated Hux and his pretentious antics about twice as much as he did. Across from him at the very meeting he was presently trying not to zone out at, Rey Kenobi sat mouthing vaguely inappropriate phrases at him as the red-haired beta droned on and on. 

In a room full of alphas, it was no wonder everyone sort of hated the man. 

At least he had her as an ally, and he didn’t even just have her there, she was his roommate, too. The two shared a two bedroom apartment in midtown and ever since they’d first signed their lease a couple of years ago, life had been smooth sailing. Thanks to an agreement to always have rut sex at the apartment of whichever omega—or occasional alpha, they both dabbled—they were banging that month, they even got past the tougher parts of having presented a designation. 

Their delightful repartee, however, didn’t seem to lead anywhere, even though, if he was being honest, he’d had feelings for her for the better part of a year that defied what alphas usually felt for each other. He wasn’t sure how to explain it, but his feelings seemed to run deeper than what he’d presented as when he’d been seventeen. Rey, thankfully, was oblivious, but that didn’t stop her from being the object of his daydreams whenever he’d stare off into space at work meetings. 

Just like he was doing now. 

The speech was a bore, and he was mid-way through switching the incessant tapping of his knee to the flicking of a pen, but then he found himself distracted by a distant pain in his side. It wasn’t exactly terrible, but it was a momentary distraction from his usual fidgeting, which, in all honesty, made his day a little more interesting. 

He’d never gotten a random pain during a meeting. The sad part was that was probably the most interesting part of his day, followed shortly after by the way he looked up into Rey’s face and watched her mouth, “are you okay?” 

He mouthed back “I’ll tell you later,” and that tiny interaction became the most fascinating part of his day. 

God, that was a sad thought. If a tiny interaction and a little pain was the only interesting thing about his life, that spoke volumes about the kind of path he was going down. 

But life, no matter how much one tried to keep it boring, never had a habit of remaining static for long. As the meeting adjourned and they were dismissed to return to their desks, Ben loosened his tie, feeling as if the temperature in the room had suddenly risen by at least ten degrees. 

_ Fuck,  _ was he coming down with something? Had he caught the office bug that had been steadily passing from one person to the next since flu season had started? If he had, he was going to kick Dopheld Mitaka’s ass—he was the last person who had it, and while he actually liked Hux’s secretary, he wouldn’t feel bad about it. Ben, like any normal person, hated being sick. 

That was probably why he was starting to get irrationally upset over it. He wasn’t really angry, per se, but he felt kind of like he wanted to curl up on his and Rey’s living room couch and not move for several days. All over a cold he wasn’t even sure he had. 

_ I’m a dumbass,  _ he thought.  _ A stubborn, over-emotional dumbass.  _

Before his train of thought could derail further, a hand rested on his arm, interrupting his downward spiral as he looked over to see his roommate staring up at him with no small amount of worry in her eyes. “Hey, are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” he replied, running a hand through his hair as they walked back toward the cubicles. Well, technically toward what was beyond them. Ben had the corner office and Rey had the one just two doors down, but still—that general direction. “I think I might be coming down with something.”

“Office bug?”

“Maybe.”

She sniffed the air as they wove through the cubicles, taking the short route on their way to the offices. “You don’t smell sick,” she replied, but she didn’t sound relieved to announce that he could spare Dopheld the ass-kicking after they punched out. “Don’t think it’s that.”

Oddly, that didn’t reassure him either. If it wasn’t the office bug, odds were it was something a little more serious, more sinister, and if it wasn’t that little twenty four hour virus, he was probably going to have to see a doctor. Great. That was a bill he was looking forward to. “What is it then?”

“I don’t know, but you smell…” She sniffed the air again, and if he blinked he would’ve missed it, but he swore he saw her shudder. “Good. Really good.”

“Might be my new cologne.”

“No…” she muttered quietly, looking at him oddly as they approached her office, then she licked her lips, biting one as he watched the thoughts dance about in her head. “Hey, how about this? If you’re still feeling weird when work is over, I’ll drive you to the doctor. Sound okay?”

Another brief flash of heat passed over him, and he winced as he felt his entire body become oddly—muggy? Was that the right word—damp, as if sweat had just started coming out of his pores, but it wasn’t enough to bead and properly glisten on his skin yet. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

“Okay, I’ll see you later,” she replied, then she reached up, and squeezed his shoulder, her hand lingering for half a second as she looked at him with something unreadable in her eyes. “Bye, Ben.”

“Bye,” he said, then he made his way over to his office, an itch developing beneath his skin with every step he took, but only in one place.  _ Uh oh.  _

Sure enough, the second he got to his office and looked down, a sizable erection was tenting his pants between his legs, demanding he paid it attention immediately unless he wanted to sit there behind his desk feeling painfully hard for the next two hours.  _ Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.  _ He didn’t need this. On top of being sick, he now had to deal with his cock, too?

_ Wait a second.  _ His cock was hard randomly, his emotions were all wonky, and he felt sick? Those symptoms sounded familiar, but it was impossible for him to be going into rut. His last one had been a month ago. He wouldn’t need to hide himself away or pray he found an Omega for another two. This couldn’t be his rut, it was impossible. And yet… there was his cock, standing proud and at attention, and strangely, it also seemed a little—wet?

No, his cock wasn’t wet. Everything was. 

Checking quickly to see if anyone could see him, Ben looked down at his pants, and hurriedly began to undo his belt buckle, fearing suddenly that something had gone majorly wrong. As his fingers grazed the skin beneath his clothing, he could feel something strange coat them. It wasn’t sweat, the consistency was wrong. Nothing his body had ever produced—aside from  _ maybe _ come—felt like this, and a million alarm bells began to go off in his brain. 

No, wait, those were real alarm bells. His phone was pinging him with the daily reminder to take his suppressants, and he wanted nothing more than to throw the damned thing against the wall. Instead, he shut off the alarm, his hands freeing themselves from his pants as his worry levels began to skyrocket. 

A fresh wave of heat rushed through him, and he doubled over, certain that by now he must’ve been dripping with sweat as the wave passed over. Luckily, he adjusted to it quickly, and though the hot temperature didn’t subside, he found that he was able to get up again, rising to his feet as discomfort gave way to a different sort of feeling. It still wasn’t comfortable, but this new sensation seemed to be sprinting from his cock, which seemed to demand to be touched. 

On top of feeling like pure garbage, he realized, he was remarkably turned on. Why he was turned on, he did not know, but he was. His cock hadn’t been this hard since his last rut, and unless he rubbed it out soon, he had a feeling he was going to be in for a long, excruciating day at the office. 

Whatever illness this was, he was going to sue biology for creating it. Being sick was bad enough, but being so fucking horny he was considering jerking off in his corner office was just ridiculous. Hell, he ought to have had Rey drive him to the doctor then and there given how miserable he was. 

He’d have to get rid of that erection first, though, and he had a feeling that no amount of naked grandma was going to get this one to deflate. He was going to have to jack off at work, and he wanted to fucking die because of it. 

Not here, though. Anywhere but here. People walked in and out of his office all the time, he was lucky no one had caught him in this state yet thus far anyway. 

The unisex bathroom just by Rey’s office, though, would be perfect. Sure, it would be weird to masturbate with only a thin wall between himself and the woman he secretly had feelings for, but desperate times called for desperate measures. 

His decision made, Ben straightened himself up, and patted down the sweat on his face with the sleeve of his suit jacket. No one would know that he was deathly ill with some kind of horny disease or premature rut. No one. 

Still, a sense of unease filled him as he turned, attempting to grip the door handle with his sweat-covered hands at least three times before he finally got a good enough hold to open it, and rush out into the hallway. The alpha kept his head down as he went, his breathing a little unsteady but not at a suspicious level as his eyes locked on the bathroom door, his cock twitching in his pants at the thought of freedom. 

Relief was just seconds away. 

Ben sped up as he made his final approach, another sense of glee pushing at the edge of his mind as he successfully grabbed hold of the door, and pushed it open to reveal someone was already inside. Both of them shrieked, the scream of the other person making him realize it was Rey, but his brain barely registered that as another of his five senses suddenly alerted him to something new. 

A rich, deep scent hit him, as if he were smelling fresh wood laced with vague hints of vanilla. He wasn’t sure what it was, and at first, he thought it might’ve been perfume, but then he was hit with something else, this time from his brain as it helpfully supplied one word— _ alpha.  _

Staggering backward, Ben found his hands clutching his chest as Rey called out his name, her hand finding his shoulder as his cock twitched in response. “Are you all right?” she asked, and  _ fuck,  _ he was scared, he was so scared of whatever was happening to him, but seeing her eyes and the affection in them in that moment had his lizard brain turning into mush. 

“Rey…” he groaned out, his hands folding conveniently over his erection as he tried to keep from making it obvious that he was hard as a rock. “I think I’m dying.”

“Ben, you’re burning up,” she replied, pressing the back of her hand against his forehead as her breath hitched, shuddering as it left her lungs and filled the open air. “Oh my god…”

“What?” His head fell back against the wall behind him, her hand moving with it as she moved a little closer to him. “What is it?”

The alpha in front of him bit her lower lip, the skin turning white as she pressed her teeth into it. For a couple of seconds, he feared she would draw blood, but then she released it, and backed away. “Don’t go anywhere. I’m going to tell our boss that we’re leaving early, then we’ll get you a doctor’s note.” She then moved to go and do just that, but in a moment of clarity, he reached out and grabbed her wrist before she could go too far. “What?”

“Don’t tell my mother.”

“Ben, I have to, she's our boss,” Rey protested. “Don’t worry, I’ll just tell her you think it might be the flu. Okay?”

Still feeling a bit hesitant, he nodded slowly. “Okay.” Then she squeezed his arm, and he watched as she walked away, leaving him alone in his misery as he fought back the overwhelming thoughts his brain was supplying him telling him to run after her and urge her to bend him over the desk in his office. 

_ What was wrong with him _ ? He’d never been like this a day in his life. Sure, he’d had thoughts of being with Rey before, but usually, they involved some sort of sweet, soft scenario that left him feeling wholesome as well as hard. The things he was thinking about right then were debauched, hungry, and some of them were borderline feral. Something was wrong, terribly, horribly, wrong, and she was right. He needed to go to the doctor. He needed to find a solution to this problem. 

Something told him, though, that he would discover it soon. A few seconds after he started having involuntary thoughts, he heard the click of heels walking toward him, and he turned his head as that familiar alpha scent filled his nose, and Rey entered his line of sight. 

“Are you okay?” she asked, then her hand was on his arm again and his brain short-circuited. “You somehow look worse.”

“Great,” he muttered sarcastically, running a hand through his sweat-dampened hair before loosening his tie again. “So… Doctor?”

“Doctor.” Her breath caught again as she looked at him, closing her eyes as she shook her head, and they began walking. “I’m really worried about you, you know. You smell…”

“I smell?”

“No, not bad. You smell good, Ben, really good. Almost as if you were…” She laughed as they approached the elevator, and she pressed the button with a slightly shaky hand. “It’s impossible.”

Brows furrowing in concern, Ben leaned in towards her. “Almost as if I were what?”

Her breathing shuddered again, and she took a step away from him. “God, this is going to be the worst car ride of my life. You smell like an omega. A really good one.”

An Omega? Him? “Impossible.” This time, he was the one who was laughing, his chest shaking even as a fresh wave of heat washed over him— _ just like an omega _ —and he looked into her eyes, desperate to gauge if she was serious. “I’m an alpha. I’ve always been an alpha. You know this. We  _ live  _ together.”

“I know, but… whatever’s going on with you, maybe it’s some kind of rut related sickness.”

“Yeah…” he replied, swallowing a lump that was starting to form in his throat out of pure fear. “Maybe.” 

But that wasn’t it, was it? The strange wetness in his pants, the way the temperature in the room seemed to skyrocket at random intervals, his sudden inexplicable horniness, and the erection that wouldn’t go down no matter how many times he thought of every single thing that turned him off—even the hundreds of dollars he owed the IRS couldn’t stop him from getting hard now—all seemed to point to…

It was impossible. He was an alpha. Alphas couldn’t go into heat, that was just how biology worked. Whatever was happening to him had to have some other kind of explanation. Maybe this was just a strange, early rut, but something told him that wasn’t the case. 

The elevator doors opened, interrupting his thoughts as he stepped onto it with Rey, finding her scent increasingly overwhelming as the doors closed behind them, trapping them in a confined space together. “Fuck.” 

Again, her hand found itself on his shoulder, but he couldn’t help noticing that she was leaning as far away from him as she possibly could while still maintaining contact. He almost felt insecure about it, but then he remembered that she said he smelled incredible. Was his scent so overwhelming she couldn’t be near him? She’d also said this was going to be the worst car ride of her life, and given how good she smelled to him, he had a feeling he was going to agree. 

Groaning, he leaned back against the wall, and in spite of whatever was making Rey lean away from him, she stepped closer, and rubbed his shoulder. “I’m sure whatever it is, you’ll feel better in the morning.”

“I hope so,” he replied, then the doors opened, and they walked out of the elevator into the parking lot, his nerves wrestling around inside of him more and more by the second. 

Neither of them spoke as they got in the car, Rey seemed to lean away from him again even as she began to drive, but he could see her looking at him periodically out of the corner of his eye. That was oddly comforting, he thought. Even in spite of how she was feeling, she was still looking out for him. In a way, she always had. They were good at that, he thought; looking out for each other was one of the few things they actually seemed to get right. 

Him suddenly going into a weird heat-rut, though? That was new. He had no idea how they would handle that, and that was kind of terrifying. 

“I think I’m going to have to roll the windows down,” she said after a while, and he had to stifle a moan as her tongue came out to wet her lower lip. God, he wanted to feel that tongue in other places. 

“Are you—?”

“Ben, ever since you started smelling like this I—” She gripped the steering wheel tightly as he watched her jaw clench. “I can’t stop thinking about pulling this car over and riding you. We’re on the fucking free-way. I can’t do that, I’ll be arrested.”

He was going to die. This was death, sweet death, coming for him at the ripe old age of thirty-two. Hearing the woman he loved saying she wanted to ride him? He’d just ascended to heaven and walked through the great, pearly gates. 

“Oh…”

“Please make me focus on the road, I need to not think about you—” she gestured vaguely. “—like that.”

“Uh… focus on the road?”

“Thanks, Ben.”   


“My brain isn’t exactly with me at the moment.”

Snorting her amusement, she reached over, and laid her hand on his knee, causing his already impossibly hard cock to somehow become even harder. If she just moved her hand up a little further— 

“Rey, you can’t—”

“Sorry,” she replied, removing her hand as she put her focus back on the road. “I’m also sorry I keep thinking about it. I shouldn’t be.”

“If it helps, I’m thinking about it, too.” His cock twitched as he admitted it, his stupid brain falling to mush as he pictured it again. What if she pulled them over? What if she took him on the side of the road? Would that make the ache go away?

“God damn it, Ben, don’t tell me that.”

“Sorry.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t talk either.”

“That might be a good idea,” he replied, then he fell silent even as a million questions buzzed around in his head. 

Did she just want to fuck him because he smelled good or was it more than that? Either way, his brain was screaming at him to let her take him and fall apart in the passenger seat, to let this  _ alpha _ take him inside of her and ride him with reckless abandon. If he had to admit a preference, though, he hoped that at least some small part of her already wanted this, already wanted him, and that maybe when this was over, they actually could tangle the sheets together. 

Before he could think too hard on it, Rey pulled off the highway, the emergency clinic standing tall just to the side of the exit ramp as the car suddenly got hotter, and he started thinking he’d have to ask her to roll the windows down for a different reason other than the overwhelming scent of her. “Fuck, I’ve never been more relieved to see that thing in my life.”

“Hang in there, Solo. You’ll be okay.”

*

She was technically right. He was okay, but as he sat in the doctor’s office half an hour later, the diagnosis he was given by the clinic’s lead doctor—thankfully a beta—Poe Dameron, might’ve shocked him into not being quite so okay. 

“I’m going to be upfront with you, this is the weirdest diagnosis I’ve ever seen,” the doctor told him, then he put up a hand just as Ben was about to start protesting. “But not unheard of. You’re not some medical anomaly, I promise.”

Scoffing casually, he fought back another groan as the temperature began to skyrocket again. “Really? Cause I sure feel like one.”

“Well, no. Your condition is rare, but not unheard of. You’re just one of about one hundred alphas who presented a second designation later in life.”

Blinking, he gasped slightly as he looked at his doctor like he’d sprouted a second head. “What?”

“You presented as an alpha at seventeen, correct?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, you just presented as an omega today at thirty-two. We’re not really sure what causes it. There hasn’t been a found correlation or causation yet, but it does happen. You’re in heat, Ben.” 

_ Oh, _ it made sense, didn’t it? All of his symptoms matched an omega’s heat. Rey had even said that he smelled just like an omega, and he’d felt what could only be slick between his thighs— _ oh good god he was in heat. _ “Holy shit.”

“Enough people have presented with two designations that the scientific community even termed people with two designations with their own name.”

“What are they—we?”

“We call them—you—deltas. I kinda hate it, makes me think of a sorority, but for scientific purposes, it works.” Then his doctor gave him a sympathetic smile, and wrote something down on the clipboard in his hand. “I can write you another prescription for heat-specific ibuprofen, but they probably won’t kick in for a day or two.”

“Okay.”

“With these, though, don’t take them with other medications if you can help it. We’ve heard of some uncomfortable side effects.”

“What about Adderall? I can’t focus at work if I don’t take it.”

“You shouldn’t be at work anyway. This is the time to use your sick days,” the doctor replied, then he paused. “Speaking of which, do you know anyone who might be willing to help you ride this out? I’m sure I don’t need to tell you going through a heat alone is miserable.”

Did he know anyone? He knew plenty of omegas, but when it came to alphas… the only one he could think of off the top of his head that he trusted was Rey. Would she want to help him? He wondered if it would even be worth it to ask. 

No, it would be too awkward. If he asked her and they spent a few days rutting against each other only to never speak of it again, things would become incredibly awkward. Already, he could see the worst-case scenario playing out in his head, and by the end of it, he could see their friendship ending, Rey moving out, and himself being completely alone for the remainder of his days. Perhaps that was a touch dramatic, but if there was anything he could do to avoid that future, he would. 

“I don’t know anyone.”

Poe rested his hand on his shoulder, patting it gently before he sighed. “Well, good luck finding someone or… toughing it out.” A pause. “Wait, isn’t your roommate an alpha?”

“Yeah, she is, that’s why we’re roommates, but—”

“It’s none of my business, but whatever reason you’re considering not taking that option, I’d rethink that.”

“I might,” he admitted, then he stood, wiping off his sweaty palm before he shook the doctor’s hand. “Thanks, doc.”

“Anytime.” Then Poe tore off the strip of paper on his clipboard and handed it to him. “Get that to a pharmacy as soon as possible. It’ll make it a bit easier.”

Giving him one last nod, Ben made his way from the exam room, his doctor following on his heels for a couple of seconds as he walked out into the lobby, and found himself once again overwhelmed by Rey’s scent as she stood up from her seat, and immediately walked over to him, placing her hands on his arms as those concerned eyes looked into his. “What’s going on? Did they give you an answer?”

“They did, yeah.” He ran a hand through his hair, a frustrated sigh leaving him as they began to walk out of the lobby, and he bounced the prescription in his hand a couple of times, watching the paper wave in the breeze he created. “You know how you were saying I smelled like an omega?”

A shudder passed through her body. “You still do.”

“Yeah, well, I am one. Apparently it’s rare, but people can present a second designation later in life.” A laugh escaped him then, sounding hollow and worn out as they approached Rey’s car. “Doctor said they call them—us—deltas. An entirely new designation.”

“What the fuck?” Rey asked, seeming to almost drop her keys as she unlocked the car, then they both opened their doors, remaining silent until they were seated inside, and the doors were shut once more. “So now you’re an omega as well as an alpha?”

“Apparently. I think I might be cursed,” he replied, leaning his head back against the seat as the air temperature sky-rocketed again. “Can you turn on the air conditioning?”

“Yeah, sure.” She then leaned forward, turning on the cool air just before she put the car in reverse, backing them out of the parking space as slowly and carefully as she could before they began the drive to the pharmacy. “So you’re in heat then?”

“Unfortunately,” he muttered, wanting nothing more than to curl up in a ball and die as Rey turned onto the main road. “I have no idea what I’m going to do.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t really know any alphas who can help me, and—” He gestured between them. “We’re… I don’t know.”

“I could help you.”

If he’d had a drink, he would’ve spat it out. “ _ What? _ ”

All she did was shrug in response, the only sound for a couple of seconds belonging to her car’s engine as she guided them back onto the highway. “Ben, you’re my friend, if I didn’t try to help you through this, it’d be kind of shitty, wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah, but…” He did a series of vague, uninterpretable gestures with his hands, then shook his head as he gave up any hope of conveying his meaning. “It’s like you said, we are friends. Normally the omegas we help through heats are strangers.”

“Ben, it’s just heat-sex. It could be perfectly platonic,” she replied, though she sounded oddly stiff as she said it, almost as if—though that may have been his dumb brain just hoping for the best—she didn’t believe that. “We've already been talking about it. I mean, it’s just biology, right? Alphas help omegas all the time. It’s what we’re designed for. You know this.”

She was right, he knew she was right, but those feelings he had for her were simmering beneath the surface of his skin, and he feared that if he said yes, he wouldn’t be able to hide them. “Are you sure?”

“Of course. It’s just sex.”

It was tempting, so tempting, and as the seconds went on, he became more and more tempted to take it. Alphas were meant to help omegas. It was just biology. He could let her help him through this heat and then force himself to forget how she looked when she was naked, right?

Swallowing the fear that had developed within him, he slowly gave her a nod. “Okay,” he said after a while, then he felt her hand come up to rest on his shoulder yet again, his entire body relaxing at her touch. Well, his entire body except for the leg that he couldn’t keep from bounding. Adhd didn’t give a shit about his new designation, it would seem.. “Help me.”

“I’ll make you feel better, Ben, I promise,” she whispered to him, her breath hitching slightly as she then rolled the windows down. “After we make it home in one piece.”

Chuckling quietly to himself, he turned his attention to the window, staring blankly ahead as he fought back the urge to think about what they were about to do. Given his feelings for her, would he be able to survive this? The fear that things would become impossibly awkward between them in the aftermath was almost overwhelming, but he could feel his skin crawling with discomfort more and more by the minute, an itch he could only scratch one way growing more intense in spite of his fears. 

He needed this, and he was glad he didn’t have to find some random alpha on tinder or something, but—if this somehow ruined their friendship… 

No, it wouldn’t. It  _ couldn’t.  _ They were stronger than that, right? He and Rey had been through a lot of shit together. They would get through this, too. It would probably be awkward at some point, but weren’t all heats just fucking unbearable? 

They could do this. They  _ would _ do this. He just hoped he would be able to keep his feelings hidden over the next few days until his heat was over. 

Surely at the bare minimum, he could manage that, couldn’t he?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it’s been a minute! I wanted to prioritize finishing another fic so this got put on hold 😂 also the chapter count went up. Not sure how much more up it will go but WE WILL SEE

His heart was still beating at an unhealthy pace when they got back to their apartment a little while later. The scent of the alpha beside him was slowly turning his brain into mush even as she became the only thing keeping him standing. It was almost as if he was drunk, but the only thing intoxicating him was  _ her.  _

Rey’s fingers were trembling as she pulled out the keys, missing the lock about three times before she finally got it, and they stumbled inside a couple of seconds later. He vaguely heard her saying she needed to get him to the living room couch, but by then the temperature of the room had started to skyrocket again and his focus—and blood—went directly to his cock, to the worst itch he’d ever had in his life. 

It felt like he was going to die if he didn’t hide in his bedroom and stroke this one out, but as they made it to the couch and he fell against the cushions, he remembered what Rey had promised him in the car. A fresh shiver raced down his spine at that. He had never thought he’d be there with her, that anything would ever come from the crush he’d been steadily developing on her for years. But here he was, an alpha experiencing a fucking Heat, and she wanted to help him through it. 

The gland at the side of his neck—his mating gland—itched a little at the thought. He needed to calm down, this was just sex. Anything further was not to be worried about until after his heat passed. 

_ Christ.  _ His fucking Heat. A part of him still couldn’t believe it, but then as Rey walked away, placing her jacket and keys on the coat rack they’d placed along the side of their front hallway, a fresh wave of pain filled him in her absence, and a grown fell from his mouth. 

“Shit, Ben, I’m so sorry,” she breathed, rushing back into the living room but standing on the other side of it, her hands covering the lower half of her face as if she couldn’t stand to be near him. “I’m—“

“It’s fine.”

“No, it’s not.” She crossed the room, reaching out tentatively for him as she took in a shaky breath. “I promised I’d help you, so—“ She shrieked as he tugged on her hand, pulling her onto the couch with him as his arms wrapped around her, Rey’s hand landing softly on his chest as a soft little, “oh,” left her lips. 

They sat there like that for a couple of seconds, both of them breathing in sync as they stared at one another, almost as if they were asking whether the other person was sure. “I don’t want this to ruin anything.”

“It won’t.” Her fingers bunched up the fabric of his shirt in her fist, their eyes were drawn to the way she was slowly undoing his button-down from the center of his chest up. “It’s biology, Ben. It’s perfectly normal.”

Her fingers undid the top button, then their eyes met, another moment of hesitation passing between them as her fingernails gently scraped down the expanse of exposed skin on his chest down to where the remaining buttons waited to be undone. “Rey, I just…” Another shiver passed through him as she finished those buttons, her hands slowly reaching for the shoulders of his jacket and shirt. “I want to make sure you’re comfortable.”

“I wouldn’t do this if I wasn’t,” she promised him, her voice stone-cold and serious as she then moved to free him from his shirt and jacket once and for all. A sharp inhale soon followed as she was hit with a fresh wave of his scent, then she nodded. “Ben, I care about you. I just want you—I just want you to be okay.”

A tiny smile tugged on the corners of his mouth at that, then he tossed his clothes over the back of the sofa, and let his hand cup the base of her skull. “Okay.”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m making sure we do this properly. I'm not gonna let you fuck me without kissing you first.”

The alpha beside him full on  _ gulped  _ at that, her lower lip quivering as she bowed her head, giving him the silent all-clear, then he leaned in, and in spite of everything in his body telling him to pull her on top of him and let her have her way with him, his lips met hers in the sweetest, gentlest touch he’d ever experienced. It was so tender, so mild, that for a moment, he forgot his heat and the reason he was kissing her in the first place. Everything fell away in favor of allowing him to enjoy this kiss, and for those few seconds, he was grateful. 

Then a fresh wave of pain took over his body, and he whimpered against her lips, causing Rey to take action. Without hesitating or even breaking the kiss, she swung a leg over his lap, straddling his thighs as his head bent back to give her better access to his mouth, the kiss growing deeper as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. 

Soft little moans escaped his mouth as he pulled him closer, her body flush against his. They were touching almost everywhere now, but the place that called his attention the most was undoubtedly his cock. He could feel her cunt through their clothes. Warmth flooded his body as she rocked against him, and a fresh wave of what he now knew to be slick coated his thighs. 

This was heaven, he thought, this was bliss, but he still needed to feel her, still needed to experience that skin to skin contact. The scent of her combined with this sweet friction was amazing on its own, but he needed  _ more.  _ He craved  _ more.  _

As if she read his mind, Rey began to undo the buttons of her blouse, her lips never separating from his as her fingers rushed down the line of buttons, and undid them all in one swift motion. He watched her as she did so, almost awestruck by the way she moved. It almost looked as effortless and natural as breathing, and Ben was utterly hypnotized. She then reached out to grab the fabric from her shoulders, pushing it off of herself before she tossed it in the same direction that he’d tossed his clothes in earlier. 

“Dear God, fuck me,” he breathed, then they both froze. Had he really just said that? Both of their mouths fell open in shock, neither of them fully able to believe that they just heard what he said. “Oh my God I’m so sorry.”

All she did in response was laugh, her hands coming up to caress his cheeks as she pulled away from the kiss, and rested her forehead against his. “It’s all right, Ben.” Another laugh. “You’re just eager.”

“I’m not used to this,” he admitted, his hands resting on her waist as she continued to grind gently against his erection. “Needing this, needing someone to—to just  _ take _ me.”

“But you want it? You want someone to take charge and tell you how good you are, and—“

“ _ Yes. _ ” His breath caught as she ground against him a little harder. “I want you to take charge. I want all of it.”

She pulled back then, clearly struck with an idea as she looked down at him. “Ben, has anyone ever fucked you?”

Confusion welled within him. “Of course?”

“No, not have you ever been inside of someone. I’m asking if someone has ever been inside  _ you. _ ”

A shiver passed through his body, his cock twitching in response at the thought of Rey inside of him. Given what she probably had in mind it would be some neon appendage that was going to be in him, but still, he needed it like he needed air. He hadn’t ever really given much thought to being pegged, but he found as Rey pulled off of him, that he was entirely turned on to the idea. 

He wanted this. His body wanted this, and life was to short to refuse the knowledge of what this would feel like. 

Eventually, after what felt like far too long, he gave her a nod. “Yes.”

“Yes someone has been inside of you?” she asked, relief filling her voice as she asked the question, and panic filling him as he realized she’d misunderstood. 

“No! I just, I’m okay with it. I want to try it if you’re willing to.”

Another nod. “I am,” she said, then she rolled off of him and stood up, a tiny groan leaving him at the loss of her. “Take off your pants, and don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back.”

And with that, she made her way out of the room, leaving him speechless as he leaned back against the couch, and took his first breath of free air that he’d taken since they’d sat down at that boring ass board meeting hours earlier. It was difficult to wrap his head around everything that happened that day. When he had awakened, everything felt normal, nothing has felt awry, not until he had gotten to work, sat down in that meeting, and suddenly felt the beginning of the pain. 

Now here he was, half naked on his living room couch, getting ready to be fucked in the ass, and experiencing his first heat. A part of him wondered how this happened, what had triggered this sudden change in his biology, but another part was grateful. At least he could die knowing what it felt like to kiss Rey. 

He wouldn’t get any further than a kiss though if he didn’t take off his damn pants like she’d asked, and so he hurriedly began to undo the belt and button of his ruined trousers. No amount of dry cleaning was going to save these fucking pants. They were a lost cause, and so he hurriedly removed them, kicking off his shoes in the process before they joined the pile of his and Rey’s clothes behind the sofa. 

He was then completely bare to their apartment. A slight shiver rushed over him as the cool air hit, but he was so fucking hot by that point, that within a matter of seconds, he forgot all about it. In fact, that became particularly easy when he heard the door to Rey’s bedroom open, and he turned around to find his jaw became unhinged at the sight of her naked body. 

Well, she was mostly naked at least, around her hips, he could see the straps of a black harness, a thick surprisingly not neon pink dildo attached to it. His breathing grew quicker as he looked at her, as he admired the muscles that he had always known were beneath her clothes, but never truly took the time to imagine. Swallowing dryly, he took in her breast, observing that they were small, but perfect, utterly perfect, and sure, he’d stared at them a few times when she hadn’t known he was looking — a guilty pleasure of his, truly guilty –but this was something else entirely. 

Her chest was a gift from God, and maybe this thing they were starting together was supposed to be about him, but he fully planned to worship her as if she were his own personal goddess. 

“You’re staring,” she told him, causing heat to rise to his cheeks. He wondered how crimson the brush was.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s cute.” She pinched his cheeks as she approached, then she pushed his shoulder so that he was lying back against the sofa. “You’re blushing.”

“I’m not cute,” he protested.

“On the contrary, you’re  _ very  _ cute.” A small laugh fell from her lips, then she was on top of him again, settling herself between his legs as she kissed him again, and he felt himself grow lightheaded and dizzy. “And you have the prettiest cock.”

That sentence alone nearly made him come, which was ridiculous, but he was in a weird headspace. Things that would normally only be mildly arousing were suddenly bringing him to the edge, and she hadn’t even started to fuck him yet. 

A shaky breath escaped him, then she slowly positioned the head of her dildo against him, his entire body trembling as she ran a finger against his skin, and sighed. “You’re soaked,” she told him, though he already knew that, and had known it since he’d still been in his office. “Is this for me?”

“Christ, Rey.”

“It’s just Rey, Ben, but I appreciate the compliment,” she replied, causing him to laugh as she pressed the strap-on inside of him, and his laughter turned into a pitchy moan. 

It wasn’t like anything he’d ever felt, but it was  _ good.  _ His entire body felt loose but also so wound up at the same time. What was indisputable, however, was this felt impossibly  _ good.  _

He felt like he was being stretched in a way he’d never been stretched before, but he liked it, even if the sensation of her pushing into him was a little foreign. It was nice, something he wanted to bask in for a while and just enjoy. 

The rest of his body did not share that sentiment of peace, however. It demanded more, and so as Rey bottomed out inside of him, he wiggles his hips slightly, hoping she’d understand his signal that he wanted her to be moving, and start fucking him properly. 

“Be patient,” she whispered, bending down to press a kiss to the side of his neck. “I want to enjoy this.”

“I thought this was supposed to be about helping me.” His voice dropped low, almost to a whisper, and satisfaction filled him as he felt her tremble on top of him. “Or was that just an excuse to get in my pants?”

Scoffing, she planted another open mouthed kiss to his neck, sucking the skin into her mouth as he gave a sharp whine—she was mere inches from his mating gland, her nose actually brushing against it as she marked him—and he felt himself approaching the edge already. “Maybe I want to be a little selfish.”

“And-and why would you be selfish with me?” he asked, his brain slowly losing its function as she began to gently rock her hips against him, pulling the shaft of her dildo in and out a few inches at a slow, steady rhythm as if she knew exactly how close he was to falling apart and wanted to draw out the torture for as long as possible. 

“I’ve never had an omega who smelled as good as you. You’re…” She sighed in disbelief. “You’re incredible.”

Those words were music to his ears, and as his hips found their rhythm with hers, he realized that he wanted her to be as selfish as possible. He wanted her to take her time and his, and waste every second they had left just like this. “Rey…”

“Shhh, don’t talk,” she whispered, then she thrusted into him again, her lips meeting his as she did so, and he felt lightheaded all over again as his hands fell to the sides of his head as if he’d put them up in surrender. 

His alpha, though, seemed bound and determined to leave no part of him unfilled. Without breaking the kiss, she let her hand glide down from its previous perch on his shoulder so that it covered his, her fingers smoothing out the bend in his knuckles ever so briefly before she wound them in the space between his, and laced their fingers together. 

Shock jolted him as he writhed beneath her, unsure where the sudden and intimate gesture had come from, but he soon wrapped his fingers around the back of her hand, his thumb stroking the back of hers as she began to thrust into him a little harder, and the kiss was broken. 

Looking into her eyes, he felt a shudder run through him as he saw how dilated her pupils were. Her hazel irises were dark, nearly blackened, and yet there was still something impossibly soft and intimate about the way she looked at him. Her lips were parted, her breathing uneven, but a vague hint of a smile was present on her face, and he didn’t know why, but he felt almost compelled to smile back, the corners of his mouth twitching up as she hit a spot deep inside of him that left his body arching into hers. 

Ecstasy flooded his veins, and he knew he wasn’t going to last much longer even though they’d only been at it for five minutes, but the way she was touching him, planting kisses all over his face and neck as she fucked him, was driving him impossibly close to the edge. 

He wondered what it would be like to come in heat. Would it be the same as when he came in rut? Endless amounts of come coating him and his partner as he whited-out from pure bliss? Or would it be different? Would he even have a knot? Did he still have the ability to knot? 

They were about to find out, that much was for sure. He barely had time to warn her, only managing to get out her name before he panted a faint warning, and came harder than he ever had in his life. 

Just like when he was in rut, it lasted a while. She kept fucking him through it all, but he was coming apart for much longer than he did when he jerked off or occasionally got laid between ruts. A fresh coat of slick covered the dildo, allowing her to fuck him even faster and harder, and he cried out something that sounded vaguely like her name as he lost all sense of thought. 

The familiar sensation of his knot swelling brought him back to reality a couple of seconds later, and yet it wasn’t enough to bring him down from his high completely. A few more seconds—or it could’ve been minutes. He was so out of it, he wasn’t even sure how long he’d been coming—passed, then he finally managed to open his eyes, looking down at his cock where it lay impossibly hard against his stomach, his knot swollen toward the base in an ironic display of his alpha traits in the midst of his first heat. 

An omega with a fucking knot. What a concept. A truly revolutionary idea which was not hilarious in the slightest. Not even a little bit. 

The thought made him chuckle a little as his chest heaved, his breath leaving him in staggered little rushes of air as he looked up at the ceiling, and propped his head up on the hand that wasn’t being held by Rey. He had a fucking  _ knot  _ and he’d just presented as an omega. Every time he thought this day couldn’t get more fucking insane, it somehow managed to surprise him. 

“What’s... so... funny?” Rey panted, her brow furrowing in concern as she looked at him, wiping sweat from his cheek as her lips pressed into a worried line. 

“I’m an omega with a knot,” he replied, his eyes flicking down in the direction of said knot, which served absolutely no purpose since his come wasn’t inside of anyone—and was actually coating both of their chests and abdominal regions—but just laid there comically against the fine, dark hair that surrounded his base. 

“Oh…” The sound was so tiny, he almost thought he’d missed it, but no, it was definitely there. Her mouth was still in the shape of that little  _ oh _ , in fact, and she had a curious look forming in her eye, not at all unlike the one she usually got whenever she had a new idea. 

Usually that idea involved a trip to ikea to modify their apartment, but that day, he knew something else had sprung to the forefront of her mind. “What is it?”

A pink flush coated her cheeks, then she rested a palm against his chest, the dildo still inside of him shifting slightly as she did so, and causing a tiny little moan to escape him. The blush was soon concealed by a satisfied smirk as a little more come dropped onto his stomach, then she swiped a finger over a drop on his chest, looking at it curiously for a second before she put it in her mouth, and sucked her finger clean. 

His death certificate was going to be so fucking embarrassing. 

“We could… I don’t know, we could make use of that later,” she said, laughing softly to herself as she looked at him. “For now, though, I want to get you cleaned up.”

“Okay.”

“Shower with me.”

“What?”

She pulled out of him then, another whimper escaping him at the loss of her, but then she was standing, undoing the harness until it fell into a pile at her feet before she held out her hand for his. “I know we’ll only get dirty again in a little while, but given the day we’ve both had, I think we could use one.” Another smile tugged at her lips as she ran her fingertips along the edge of his arm, tracing the contours of his biceps as she met his gaze. “So what do you say?”

A point had been made. With all the sweating he’d been doing and the stress he’d been under, a hot shower was probably the best thing he could do for himself at the moment. 

What the hell?

“Yeah, okay,” he replied, then he looked down at the knot still resting against his stomach. “What are we gonna do about this?”

Snorting her amusement, Rey took a hold of his hand, then she pulled him onto his feet. “What indeed.” She then laid a hand on his cheek, and for a split-second, he thought she was going to kiss him again, but then she grinned. “I got you good, didn’t I?”

He vaguely remembered her marking him while they’d fucked, but he’d been so gone he almost didn’t register it in his memory bank. Luckily he had, and his breath left him in a rush as he recalled the feeling of her lips so close to his gland, so close to where his omega brain needed her most—

“I’ll have to leave more. You’re quite the willing recipient. A perfect omega.”

“You’re good at this, you know,” he told her, his other hand coming around to wrap around her waist as he pulled her close, fighting back the temptation to kiss her as he met her eyes once more. “Being kind to me. Being sweet.”

“I should hope so, I care about you, Ben. You’re my friend.”

_ Right.  _ Friend. That’s what they were. Friends. Only ever friends. Not anything else. Why would they be? They’d said when they set out to do this that they would be doing it strictly platonically. That didn’t change just because they had sex, even if it was mind blowing, heart racing, and life changing sex. 

It was just sex. So why did he feel all choked up about it?

“Yeah, I know, I just, I—“

“Ben, it’s just sex, stop talking before you make it weird, dummy,” she said, then she tugged on his hand, breaking their little half embrace as she led him into her bedroom—a place he hadn’t been inside of often and only ever entered when she needed his help with something—not even bothering to shut the door behind her as they walked into the bathroom, and she let go of his hand to open the shower door. 

“Nice shower.”

“You’ve seen it before.”

“Still nice.”

The sound of rushing water filled his ears a second later, and she reached a hand inside to test the temperature. “Guess we’ll have to wait a minute,” she said, shaking the water off of her hand in a way that guaranteed little droplets got everywhere. Including his face. 

“Thanks for that.”

She just laughed at him, taking hold of his hand again as the water continued rushing behind her, and she reached out to check it again with her other hand, flicking more droplets onto his skin. “There, have some more.”

“Do you do this to all your omegas or am I just special?”

There was a pause, her smile faltering somewhat as she seemed to genuinely ponder his question, then she shook her head. “I think it’s just you.” She then blinked a couple of times as though stunned by her own revelation. “Come on, water’s warm enough now.”

A tiny feeling of joy filled him as he let her lead him beneath the spray, warm streams of water washing away the beads of his come the moment he closed the shower door behind him, letting the water wash him clean. As his thoughts ran wild with wonder, Rey grabbed a bar of soap from a built-in shelf, and began scrubbing off what hadn’t managed to be cleansed by the initial spray, the scent of lavender filling the air and mingling with hers to create a soothing atmosphere that calmed his still beating heart. “Why do you think it’s just me?”

She swallowed audibly as the soap bar passed over his chest. “I’ve never felt comfortable around other omegas the way I do with you. I think—I don’t know—maybe it’s just because I don’t have any connection with them beyond just, you know, sex? But with you it’s different. You’re my best friend. I share all my best inside jokes with you, you’ve bought me tampons when I needed them and driven me home when I’ve been too drunk to drive. It could be awkward with you, but it isn’t.”

“I know what you mean,” he said, taking the soap bar from her hands and using it to wash her off instead. “I was kind of worried when you suggested that you could help me that it would be weird, but I don’t know, seeing you naked didn’t phase me as much as I thought it would.” More laughter escaped him as he massaged one of her breasts with the soap, the dried come washing away as she turned into the stream. “You look good, by the way. You should wear nothing more often.”

“I could say the same about you,” she said as his hands slid the soap bar further down on her stomach. “Poets could write a career’s worth about your cock.”

“I’m glad you’re such a fan of my dick, Rey,” he said sarcastically, causing her to laugh hard enough that she all but collapsed against his chest, his arms wrapping around her waist to support her as she leaned into him, and he let go of the soap bar, wincing as it crashed gracelessly to the floor as his hand instead caressed the back of her head, and his chin came to rest on top of it. 

“I hate you, Ben Solo.” Her voice was muffled significantly by his chest, but he could still hear her half-hearted groans all the same. “And your dick.”

“That was a short lived relationship.”

“Oh my god are you five?”

“I could ask the same thing about you,” he said, then she pulled back, shaking her head at him as she looked down at the ground. “What are you doing?”

“Looking for the soap bar, I want to get the rest of you cleaned off.”

“I thought you got it already.”

“No, Ben, you have come in your hair,” she told him, causing him to wince as she bent down to retrieve the bar, her knees cracking as she scooped it up into her hands. “Mmm, that was sexy.”

Another amused snort escaped him as she placed a hand on one of his hips to support herself in anticipation of standing up, but then she froze, her eyes falling upon his already hardening cock as her breath hitched. His ego fucking ballooned as he watched her, his eyes drawn to her like magnets as her jaw went slack, and he could tell precisely where her train of thought had gone. “You can do it, you know.”

“What?”

“What you’re thinking. I won’t stop you.”

“How generous,” she said, then she rose to her full height, standing tall as she held the soap up to his chest. “But that can wait for later. Right now, I need you to be a good omega and let me take care of you.”

This time, he was the one swallowing his nerves. “Okay,” he replied, then she began running her fingers through his hair, gathering soap on their tips as she went, rinsing him off until there wasn’t a trace of their debauchery left on his skin. 

Well, aside from the hickey she’d given him. That wasn’t going to wash away with soap. 

As she rinsed him off, he watched the lines of concentration form on her face, falling a little harder for the creases in every single one as she worked to ensure he was comfortable and clean. Rey was impossibly kind, caring, and generous beyond what he’d ever experienced when he’d hooked up with other alphas. 

This heat was already somehow both easier and harder than any other rut he’d had. It was easier because of the way she made him feel, but harder because of the feelings he harbored for her. How was he going to hide them? Everything about being close with her like this felt so natural, so good, and he wanted to scream from the rooftops that he wanted it all to mean something more. 

Whether it was easier or harder, it became clear to him that the next several days were going to be the longest of his life, and he could only pray that somehow, in spite of the odds, they made it out of this with their friendship—their relationship—intact.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it’s been so long, I’ve had to put my focus into my rffa fic lately 😭 but here’s an update ! A poorly edited one but still!

The second day of his heat--which was something he still couldn’t believe he could say--was infinitely worse than the first. In spite of how many times he and Rey had fucked that day, in spite of how hard he’d come, how easily he’d fallen to sleep, he still felt like pure and complete hell. 

She had found him whimpering when he woke up that morning, having stepped away for a quick shower in the night, and before the pain could reach its peak, she was shoving his briefs down his hips, her hand around his cock as sweet relief began filling him, the itch scratched in the only way it could ever satisfy him. He didn’t last long, he was coming all over both of them before he knew it, maybe even just a minute later, but neither of them cared. 

All he knew was that seconds after she pulled her hand away, her mouth took its place, and his eyes rolled back in his head as she took his thighs in her hands, and licked a stripe down his oversensitive cock. His vision whited out then, his body numb everywhere but that space between his thighs as he fought back the urge to come again so soon. 

Then Rey took him in almost to his knot, and her cheeks hollowed as she began sucking his cock. He thought he was going to die then, but there hadn’t been a moment of reprieve from that thought for as long as he’d been in heat. At least this kind of death would be pleasant. 

His hips twitched as she bobbed her head up and down, allowing him to fuck her mouth even though she was the one in full and complete control. “R-Rey—“

“Don’t talk, Ben, just come,” she told him, pulling off of him for half a second before going back down, her tongue swirling around his shaft as he felt his second orgasm building, his whole body burning until—

Fireworks went off in his vision in the form of those little rainbow dots that appeared whenever he closed his eyes too hard or stood up too fast. He came with a shout, her name on his lips as he fisted his hands in her hair, fighting back the urge to push himself further back in her throat as she swallowed every last drop of his come. 

Rey had been his roommate for years, and while he’d been in love with her for far too long, he’d never imagined she’d make him feel like this. There was no description fitting of what had just happened to him—what had been happening to him. He wasn’t sure what to think, how to react, he could barely even breathe in the aftermath he was so out of it. 

“Ben,” she whispered as she pulled off of him, wiping a white droplet of his come from her lips as she crawled up the length of his body, watching his sweat coated chest heave with every breath he took. “Breathe, omega. Breathe.”

He could feel oxygen enter his lungs after that, his body gulping for air that he’d deprived it of as she held his face in her hands, those worried, hazel eyes the only things filling his vision as he reached up to spread his fingers over her chest. The only thing she was wearing was a thin, lacy bralette, and so he could feel her warmth spreading out beneath it. “You-you-”

“Shhh, Ben,” she whispered, her fingers stroking his sweat-soaked hair back from his forehead. “Just breathe.”

“Rey…”

“I know, sweetheart, I know.” Then she pulled off of him, offering her hand as she stood up. 

He pulled his boxers back up before he took it, allowing her to guide him to his feet, and lead him toward his bathroom. His body still felt far too heated, but his mind was starting to get itself together he thought. The cloud that had been standing tall over his senses was finally fading, but he still felt  _ off _ . It was like being sick, but completely different all the same. 

This wasn’t just some twenty-four hour cold. 

Once they were in the bathroom, Rey took the towel he usually used to dry his hands from its little hangar, and turned on the water on his sink, dampening the towel for a couple of seconds before she turned it off again and gestured for him to come closer. She waited until he was in her space, then she began to wipe his come from his skin, her touch gentle as he felt the cool, damp fabric press against him. 

It calmed the raging heat within him, as if somehow just through these little touches, she was calming the uncontrollable changes that were waging war within his body. His breathing grew steady, his shoulders relaxed, and even as she began to cleanse herself, he felt—he wasn’t sure how he felt, but it was  _ good.  _ Everything about her was good, and if he could always feel like this—

_ There was a way he could feel like this forever _ , a tiny voice whispered in his head, and briefly he envisioned a world in which he told Rey how he felt about her. Would it be so bad if she knew? Aside from not knowing if she felt the same way, would he really regret it?

Fear quickly struck back as he realized why he felt this good right now. She was an Alpha helping her newly Delta roommate through a heat. All this could ever have been was just a perfectly platonic arrangement intended for nothing more than just endless sex and cuddling. Omegas needed to be cuddled, after all. 

This wasn’t anything and it would never  _ be _ anything. He needed to calm down, but as Rey hung up the towel and took his hand again, squeezing it gently while looking into his eyes, he knew his head—and heart—would be a war zone for an unknown amount of time even after this was over. “Thank you,” he whispered, his breathing only slightly unsteady as he wrapped his fingers around hers. “You’re—you’re really good at this, you know.”

“You’re just lucky I love you,” she replied, her eyes widening for half a second—maybe less than that, it was so short he almost wasn’t even sure he saw it—as she then laughed at him, and pulled back. “Put some clothes on. I’ll make you breakfast.”

“You can’t cook,” he pointed out as she began walking out of the bathroom, her hips swaying gently with every step—and god, did he love to watch her go. 

All he heard in response was her laughter as her footsteps retreated further, taking her into the apartment. “No, but I can microwave a mean burrito.”

Ben laughed riotously as he followed her into the kitchen, trying hard to ignore the pain that was starting up again inside of him. If he could just get a tiny minute of relief from the pain of his heat, that would be great.  _ Please, God, give me a fucking break. _

He sat down on the bar stool that sat on the edge of the bar outside of their kitchen, watching as Rey reached into the fridge, and pulled out a container of breakfast burritos. She was still grinning as she set them down on the counter then began to dig through to find the one she would give him. “One of these bad boys with salsa? Hot salsa? Cures any ailment.”

“Really?”

Rey nodded. “Well, I’m exaggerating, but it tastes good and I know that can be a distraction from what you’re feeling.“ She frowned, seeming to realize something as she unwrapped the burrito. “Actually, I don’t know if it’ll help you. I just know eating a bunch of these helps me through my ruts.”

“My rut food is burgers.” Ben began to rub his hands together casually as he spoke, watching as she made her way toward the microwave with the burrito in hand, placing it on a plate she pulled from a nearby cabinet. “Either that or pizza.”

His friend hummed. “Sounds basic.“ Then she put the food in the microwave, set the timer, and turned around to face him, leaning over the counter from the opposite side so that their faces were alarmingly close together. Ben’s heart began to do a little pitter patter in his chest as he watched her, wondering why she was getting so close to him, when they weren’t having sex at the moment. This was just sex, right?

Clearing his throat, he figured he would ask, if she got weird about it he would claim his brain was messed up by his heat. That would be a believable life right? “What are you doing?“

if she noticed that he felt weird or that he had picked up on anything, she didn’t comment on it. “Scenting you.”

And god, if that didn’t go straight to his newly delta brain, he didn’t know what would. “R-really?”

“Yeah really,” she said, another smile forming on her face as she watched his cheeks turn red. “Omega, has anyone ever told you you’re cute when you’re flustered?”

Some feral part of him rejected being called Omega, but another part yearned to hear her call him that again. He wondered if it had anything to do with his worrying designations, if the fact that he now was an omega as well as an alpha was sending his body into a confused frenzy. The alpha part of him gave a low growl, but it finished in a whimper as if his body or unwilling to continue that sort of display of dominance. “This whole thing is messing with my mind, I feel so out of sorts.“

“I bet,” she said, then she took his hand. “Two days ago, you had only ever been an alpha, and now you’re in heat. That Hass to be the weirdest shit to ever happen to anyone.“

Been side, not in his agreement as he realized she was right. “Maybe my body is just adjusting to the changes. Maybe this will be easier with time.”

“Yeah, maybe.“ He fell silent after that, wanting to hear her call him omega again, feeling unsure about it. Was this what the Omegas he knew always went through when he helped them through heats? Was it always this hard to have one’s every thought be about pleasing someone else? God, he wished he didn’t have a second designation, life was so much less confusing when he only had to worry about his ruts once every four months.

He missed that period of his life. He missed it so much.

The microwave alarm went off, interrupting his thoughts as Rey happily went over to shut it off and retreat as food, placing it in front of him before she went to get the salsa, and then pulled her own food from the fridge. It was fucking breakfast time, and his heat, and all the drama that came with it, would have to wait.

*

Once the breakfast was done, he and Ray retreated to their living room couch. He still wasn’t feeling quite as badly as he had been that morning, but the heat cramps were starting to pick up again, and he did kind of want to die. They wound up making out on the couch ignoring The local news as it played in the background. Neither of them particularly gave a fuck what they were talking about anyway.

Not that Ben give a fuck about it on a normal day, but on a day like this? Or he was going through a breakthrough heat? He gave even less of a fuck than normal which was honestly impressive. He should’ve won an award. But that was just his opinion.

Right now, Rey was straddling him. , Her lips were attached to his neck as he leaned back against the rear of the couch sighing helplessly with every single kiss she gave him. This felt good, not quite as good as what she did for him when they first got up, but it was pretty damn great if he was being honest. He almost didn’t want it to end, to just make out with her forever, to just spend eternity kissing and kissing and kissing until time ran out. 

Maybe at some point as his heat began to a bit, he could just ask her if she would kiss him for a while. He may have been the Omega, but he had a feeling she would do anything to help him, to make this something easier than it actually was.

A soft moan escaped him as her lips brushed over his meeting gland, a shiver passing through him at the thought of her biting into it, marking him as hers marking him as her Omega. But he would also be her alpha. Would she mind that? Being mated to somebody who is both? Plenty of alphas made it other alphas, plenty of people needed people of their same job designation, but would rather wanna be one of those people?

Her hips began to grind down on his erection, breathy pants escaping him until they were swallowed by her lips, and he suddenly found himself overwhelmed by a fresh new wave of pleasure. He needed to be inside of her. He needed to be inside of her right now, immediately, and while she didn’t have a night, his brain still screamed for one. Perhaps she could peg him again, he certainly enjoyed it yesterday, but…

“Can I fuck you?” He asked, surprising even himself with the question and how forward it was. Most Omega’s didn’t ask alphas if they could fuck them, most omegas just got fucked by Alpha’s. This situation was already unconventional though, what was stopping them from making it even more so? Maybe an omega could fucking alpha, and maybe an omega could fuck an alpha good. 

Rey pulled back, seeming surprised at first, then she nodded, pulling her shirt over her head before he could say anything else, before he could chicken out. “Please,“ she said, grinning as she leaned in and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips. “I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to be noted by an omega.“

“But there aren’t any omegas with a knot in me.“

Another grin. “I know that.” Then she was reaching for the waistband of her pants, her expression growing serious as she climbed off of him for a second, pushing down her pants and underwear as he watched her with captive eyes. There was no looking away, no chance to try and pretend he was looking at the ceiling or checking the time, all there was was Rey and her tanned thighs, her glowing skin, and the suddenly exposed apex of said thighs, her wet cunt in the middle.

If this was how he died, what a way to go.

“Aren’t you gonna take yours off?” His alpha gestured to his very much not taking off pants, to the tent in his underwear that indicated his cock was very much hard.

Laughter spilled from his lips, then he two stripped himself of his underwear both of them completely bare for the first time. Well, technically the second, but she had been wearing a strap on so it wasn’t completely bare. 

He needed to stop thinking. Christ, he needed to stop thinking. 

She began to climb onto his lap again kissing him gently as her hands wrapped around his neck, her fingers lacing at the base of his hair stroking it gently as his head tilted back onto the rear of the couch. This felt nice, her body was flush against his, he could feel her breasts pressing into his chest as well as the smooth, hard plains of her abdominal muscles. Already, he wanted to lose himself and her again, to just bathe in this moment where he had her naked against him for the first time, but he couldn’t do that—not just yet, he couldn’t lose himself to her without knowing one thing first.

Though it killed him to do so he pulled away from her, breathing hard as he held her face in his hands, and asked the question that he needed to ask the most, “What about protection?”

“I got an implant placed last year,“ she replied gesturing to her arm. “I’m good if you are. Unless you have some thing.“

Relief flooded him. “Yeah, clean bill of health.”

“Good.”

“Good,” he replied. “Now come here. I’m also curious about nodding and alpha.” Then he was kissing her and she was the first one to moan, soft little whimpers leaving her mouth, confusing both of their designations as they begin to melt into one another. 

It felt good, really fucking good. There was this warm, electric current running through his body, and he felt as if he’d come alive, even though nothing spectacular had happened yet. They were still just kissing, still just breathing one another in, and even as a fresh wave of slick appeared between his thighs, his prime focus was on kissing the life into the woman on top of him. 

Rey, however, was also an alpha. The part of him that was an alpha was warring with the full blooded alpha that was her, that was his best friend. One minute he would be in charge of the kiss, he would be driving his hands into her hair pulling and tugging and pushing whichever way he wanted, and then she would be in control pressing him back into the mattress, her lips moving fiercely in time with his.

Weirdly enough, it worked. A heat flooded his body of a different sort, his mind a blur as she began to reach down in the space between them, her fingers wrapping around his cock—

“Wait,” he breathed, pulling back as she groaned from the loss of him. “I—There’s something I want to try first.”

“What? What is it?”

“You—You’ve tasted me, I-I wanna taste you.” Was that too preposterous an idea? Was that insane? No, it couldn’t be. Normal Ben, not in heat Ben, absolutely loved this kind of thing. It made sense that heat Ben loved it, too. “This can’t just be all about making me come, that wouldn’t be fair.”

“I’m helping  _ you _ through your heat, Ben. That’s exactly what this is about.”

His face fell then, his muscles relaxing as he slumped over a bit. So she didn’t want him like that, then. Disappointing, but he could live. 

“I didn’t say I didn’t want you to.” Giggles poured freely between them as she rolled off of him, laying back against the couch so that her wonderfully bare form was freely exposed to him. For a couple of seconds, he just looked at her, his eyes caught on the little glimmer of sweat on her chest, gaze lingering on her nipples. “I just wanted to be sure.”

“I want to, if you’ll let me.”

“I want you to,” she told him, her voice growing serious. “I’d-I’d actually be delighted. It’s um, it’s been a while.”

“What do you mean?” he asked softly, shifting so that he was once again on top of her, Rey’s legs parting to welcome him as he braced himself. 

This time, she was the one blushing. “Normally when I’m with omegas, especially omega women, I’m the one going down, not the receiver. I don’t mind it, but once in a while? I’m only human.” He hummed his acknowledgement as he pressed a kiss to her jaw line. “I have needs.” Another kiss was placed on her collarbone. “I have wants.”

“Desires?” he offered, kissing right between her breasts. A soft moan left her, making him think it wouldn’t take long to make her fall apart like this, to please his alpha. “I could do that for you.”

“Oh?”

“I could give you so many things.” He kissed her over her abdomen, the muscles taut beneath his lips as he made his way further and further down. “So…” A kiss just above the thatch of hair between her legs. “Many…” A kiss on the inside of one thigh. “Things.” A final one on the inside of the other thigh, then he swiped at her cunt with his tongue. 

A low groan escaped her, and he felt her fingers combing through his hair not long after. “Show me,” she whispered breathlessly. “Show me everything.”

He went down on her in earnest, his tongue licking a stripe from her entrance to her clit as his hands gripped her thighs. The entire time, he could feel her eyes on him, could feel her watching as he did it again, repeating the motion as the alpha beneath him writhed under his touch. 

Much to his utter shock and delight, she was perhaps the most reactive person he’d ever been with. Her hips all but bucked against him as he sucked her clit between his lips, swirling his tongue around it as she cried out his name. 

“Ben,  _ fuck!”  _

Those were perhaps two of the holiest words he’d ever heard, and he yearned to hear them again and again. As his tongue lapped hungrily at her clit, he released one of her thighs, bringing his hand down so that his fingers were pressing against her entrance, requesting access that she readily gave in the form of a forceful tug of his hair. 

He almost laughed against her as he pressed one finger inside of her, pushing in slowly. Rey, however, didn’t seem to want that. “Omega, if you don’t fuck me with your hand properly, I will not touch you for the rest of the day.” Oh,  _ fuck.  _

Whimpering against her skin, he pushed his finger inside of her all the way, curling it deep inside of her as she howled his name. A part of him was worried that the neighbors would hear, but he didn’t care enough to worry about it. “You feel so good, Rey,” he whispered. “So good.” 

“B-Ben…” she breathed, her body seizing as he added a second finger, not hesitating to push them both all the way inside of her, his mind lost as he felt her warmth coat his fingers. This was incredible, better than anything he’d ever experienced before and he’d had his fair share of omegas before.

The feeling of pleasing her, of pleasing his alpha, was an experience that was unparalleled. 

“I’m close,” she whispered, her voice barely audible between all the panting and the little sounds his fingers made as they thrust gently in and out of her. “ _ Fuck,  _ Ben, I’m so close.”

He grinned against her clit, then his two fingers curled inside of her, and he felt her cunt fluttering around him as she came, coating his hand with a fresh wave of wetness as his name left her at a decibel level that rivaled a jet engine. Their neighbors could definitely hear, but he was honestly kind of proud of it at that point. So what if everyone knew that he’d made an alpha come within an inch of her life?

History was going to repeat itself anyway—he was about to do it again. 

First, he’d need a minute to catch his breath, and so as Rey’s orgasm began to subside, he pulled off of her, curling his fingers one last time to milk the last of it for all it was worth, then he pulled off completely. Both of their chests were heaving as they looked at each other in the aftermath, neither of them fully able to form any sort of coherent thought as they looked at one another. The only thought, in fact, that entered their brains—or rather, Ben’s brain—was the thought that he really wanted to drive her crazy again. 

That in mind, then took his fingers, and brought them to his mouth, placing them inside and sucking the taste of her from his skin. A full body shudder ran through the alpha in front of him, then she took hold of his face, pulling him over her body in an unforeseen display of strength so that their faces were right in front of each other. “You are welcome to do that to me anytime, and day, any minute, and any hour,” she told him, her expression deadly serious. “Understand me? I don’t care if you’re in heat and I’m in rut or if we’re just bored. You’re doing that again.”

His brain went numb. Rey wanted to continue doing this with him even after…  _ oh god.  _ “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, and maybe buy me a drink when this is over.” She gave him a nervous laugh then, shrugging awkwardly as she pushed him back on his ass, then she climbed on top of him, rendering them back where they’d started. “I just think we both could use it.”

“Why?” 

“To celebrate of course. You’ll have survived your first heat. And you’re a good drinking buddy.”

“Oh…” He couldn’t help the disappointment that had swelled within him. When she’d suggested they get drinks together, he’d thought she might’ve meant as a date. Still, the fact that she was willing to continue this after his heat ended was telling. Maybe she’d want more one day, maybe there was a chance she was head over heels for him too but they were both cowards. 

“But we can worry about that later,” she said, pressing a kiss to the tip of his nose, her hands reaching down between his legs for his impossibly hard cock all the while. “Right now, I need you to fuck me, omega, and I need you to fuck me good.”

Some lizard part of his brain registered that she was asking him to fuck her, but he still felt dizzy when he finally pressed against her entrance. Immediately he was surrounded by this all consuming feeling of completion, as if he had finally found that one thing he hadn’t known he was searching for his whole life. “ _ Shit—“ _

She lowered herself onto him a little further, then he groaned as he felt her heat around him. His eyes closed, his head falling limp against the back of their couch, but she just kept on sinking, past the base of his knot, nearly sheathing him in her entirely. Every thought in his head was focused on not immediately coming and knotting her before they had time to really enjoy this. If he knotted her now? When they’d just begun? He’d never forgive himself. 

This was an experience to be  _ enjoyed,  _ an act on a religious scale that he wanted to devote himself to. She was everything, and if he ever wanted her to see him as more than just a friend, he needed her CE to know what he was capable of as a lover. He’d already impressed her with his mouth, now he needed to continue that beautiful lucky streak with his cock. 

Once she decided she’d taken all she wanted from him, he shifted his hips, pleasure shooting through his body, abating any trace of pain from his heat as she began to ride him, her hands tangling themselves in his hair as he buried his face in her chest. Kisses were peppered on her skin as she held him close, her hips writhing against his as she whispered dirty little things in his ear. 

“You’re so good, omega,” she told him, her lips ghosting over his ear as he kissed the column of her throat. “So good for me. Such a pretty cock.”

It was truly a perfect fit, as if he had been created to fit with her, to be with her, to m—oh that was just too serious a thought, wasn’t it? He couldn’t be thinking about mating right then, he might’ve done something he’d regret. 

“Rey,” he breathed, then her lips found his, and his head was spinning as she rode him even harder, making him certain that in spite of his resolve, he wasn’t going to last a terribly long time. “Rey…”

Her kisses found their way into his hair, her lips warm between the layers of curls, and he sighed as she thrust against him again, his cock hitting deep inside of her, deeper than even his fingers reached. It’s then that he realized he couldn’t just worry about himself. He needed to take care of her, too. 

With an unsteady hand, he reached between them, his thumb circling her clit as her hips bucked against his, coating his cock in a fresh wave of wetness as she cried out his name. It wasn’t long after that she began fluttering around him again, her body still oversensitive from her last orgasm as it pulled his from his body. 

He came with a shout, his come spilling into her as they both moaned far too loudly. That didn’t matter, though. At the base of his cock, he could feel his knot swelling, which he hadn’t initially thought he could still do as an omega, but after she’d fucked him last night…

All he could hear was his own pulse roaring in his ears, his entire body seizing as he spilled inside of her, his knot sealing them together as she gasped from the feeling. “Fuck, fuck, fuck…”

“Fuck indeed,” he replied, causing them both to laugh even as they were still coming within an inch of their lives. “Fuck…”

“Fuck.”

“There have to be more words we can say,” he said, panting hard as the pleasure finally gave way to serenity, and his hands came up to caress her cheeks. “We’re both smarter than this.”

“Maybe there is just one brain cell between us.”

He laughed. “Maybe.”

“Or maybe we could just not say anything at all and I can just hold you?” 

He fell quiet for a minute, then he nodded. “Yeah, yeah, that sounds good,” he replied, wrapping his arms around her as he pulled her down to the seat of the couch with him, and wondered if he could say the words he’d wanted to when this was over, if they could ever say what they were thinking, and maybe make love instead of just having sex. Maybe someday, but as his fingers traced down the ridges of her spine, the motion distracting him from the faint pains caused by his heat, he knew it would have to wait till this was over. When his heat subsided, then they could talk, then he would finally seize his chance, and tell her he loved her. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's kinda short but here's the ending! I just wasn't feeling this one as strongly as I'd hoped so I'm not gonna take it further, but it was fun!

The instant the third day of his heat began, he knew it was already starting to wane. Something in his body told him this was it, the last day, and he felt both grateful and confused. Some omegas he knew went through this for up to an entire week. 

Perhaps it was his alpha biology. At least, that was Rey’s theory, which she told him as she flipped pancakes over their griddle. To her credit, she was really trying, but he could still smell them burning as he watched from the sidelines. 

His alpha was insistent that she cook for him, but he could tell she was struggling. Eventually, he sighed, taking the spatula from her hand as she squeaked her protest. “Ben Solo, you are the worst omega I have ever seen,” she told him, causing him to laugh as her arms wrapped around his waist. 

All he did was kiss her hand as he grinned. “Good thing I’m not an omega then.“ Then he flipped the pancake again. “Best of both worlds, I suppose.“

She hummed. “Wow, look at you, a few days ago this was the worst thing that happened to you.”

“No, I never thought it was the worst thing that happened to me, I just thought it was a stroke of terrible, terrible luck.“ He cut off the griddle. The pancakes were finally done and unburnt as he used the spatula to transfer them onto their waiting plates. “But, I don’t know, these last few days haven’t actually been that bad. You made them bearable. Thank you”

His Alpha just gave him a tighter embrace, and a kiss was pressed to his shoulder. “I’d do anything for you, you know. You’re my best friend. Doing this for you was a no brainer.”

Right. His best friend. They still hadn’t had that talk yet, even though they’d been knotted together for the better part of an hour the day before, he knew he hadn’t been the only one who had felt something, he knew that there was more to this than just their pheromones and biology. Somehow, they’d defied all of the odds. Most people ended up with somebody of the opposite designation; some couldn’t fight the biology and the pheromones, but him and Rey? They were one of those rare exceptions. Sometimes love was stronger than anything.

Assuming that she actually did feel the same way and he wasn’t just hallucinating.

“You want to go get coffee tonight?” he asked, feeling his heart race even though asking her for coffee was a perfectly platonic thing to do. “I’d really like to, uh, buy you one.”

“You don’t have to thank me, Ben, I just wanted you to feel good.”

_ Be fucking brave, Solo. _ This was it, this was an opportunity for him to say that he meant it as if it were a date. He just needed to stop being a coward for five minutes and ask her if she too knew this was more than just some hookup. “No, Rey, I… I want to take you out for  _ coffee _ . Not just buy you a coffee, I want…”

Blinking at him, she slowly seemed to get it as she pulled away from him, and he handed her a plate of pancakes. “You-you want to go on a coffee date?”

“Yeah,” he replied as they walked over to their kitchen table, not bothering to sit across from each other as they set down their things. “I want to take you on a coffee date. I--Does that sound weird?” 

A blush crept up her cheeks as they sat down, and she reached for his hand. “No, it doesn’t, but… your mind is still---you’re still in heat, Ben. I don’t want you to feel like you have to ask me out just because of your pheromones, or--”

“It’s not my pheromones. I’ve--I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now. I just want to take you out, maybe kiss you again when this is over just to know how it feels.” He laced his fingers with hers. “You mean more to me than just a good fuck or a roommate, though you’re wonderful at both.”

She smacked his shoulder with her other hand, rolling her eyes as she fell quiet, thinking through what he was saying to her. “Ben, even if it isn’t… we’re roommates. If things go wrong, one of us is going to have to try and find a new place to live.”

“No, we won’t. I--Yeah, it can go wrong, but it won’t. We’re good at being roommates, we’re good at being friends. We have… we have a good thing going.” He wraps his other hand around their joined ones. “I just wanted to find out if you wanted to take it a little further. It’s just a coffee date. If we both decide we hate it, we never have to do it again.”

For a couple of seconds, all she did was look at him, as if she were considering it, then she swallowed, and gave him a nod. “Okay. Truth be told, I--I’ve been thinking you mean more to me, too. I just want to make sure it isn’t all just pheromones. Do I want you or do I want your dick?” She sighed. “The dilemma.”

Chuckling quietly, he gestured to their pancakes. “Let’s eat,” he said, then he let go of her hand. “But I can promise you this; the way I feel about you… it isn’t pheromones.” 

Something like hope sparkled in her eyes, but he didn’t dare call her out on it as he began biting into the pancakes they’d made together, and the last of his heat pains began to die down.

*

They wound up having sex one more time that day. Rey’s lips wrapped around his cock as he fought back the urge to knot her mouth. Shortly after that, he was under her again, writing around her strap on as he begged her to make him come, feeling sufficiently like a needy omega in those final hours of his heat.

By the time it was over, he almost wished it wasn’t. He sure as hell wasn’t going to miss the pain, but he was going to miss the way she held him. 

_ You might not have to, _ a little voice whispered in his head. Assuming everything went well that night, maybe Ben wouldn’t have to worry about never knowing what it felt like to be with her again. 

Still, the worry of what would happen if she got scared and didn’t think it would work between them plagued him. Even as he got dressed for the evening, he found himself constantly checking the mirror to make sure he wasn’t wearing anything his alpha--Rey--wouldn’t approve of. He wanted this to work. No, he  _ needed _ this to work.

He settled on an old pair of jeans and a white v-neck. If memory served, he could’ve sworn he’d caught Rey’s eyes drifting over his body once when he wore it, and since he’d also been wearing that one leather jacket… 

Grabbing the jacket from a hanger in his closet, Ben made his way from the bedroom, slipping his arms through the sleeves as he went. His nerves were reaching a boiling point. The thought of this night going wrong was almost too much for him to bear, but then he walked into their living room, and Rey was lounging on their sofa like it was just another normal day, and he felt those nerves dissipate instantly. 

“Hey, you,” she said, smiling brilliantly at him. “You took a while.”

“I couldn’t decide what to wear. I didn’t know if I should overdress or underdress.”

“If it helps you to know, I think you managed to find the perfect balance.” She got up off the sofa, her long legs shining beneath some sort of black, faux leather fabric that caught the light every time she moved. “You look sexy like that.”

It took all of his strength not to faint on the spot. “We-we’re talking like that now?”

“Like what?”

“Like… you want me, and I’m not…”

She sniffed the air, nodding slowly. “You’re not in heat anymore. The scent still lingers, but you’re starting to smell more like you normally do, all alpha and stuff.” Stepping closer to him, Rey took hold of the lapels of his jacket, running her hands down the smooth leather while a smile parted her lips. “You know, I’ve always wondered why I’ve never been able to look at any of the other omegas I’ve been with, why I don’t care to pursue anything more serious and I just keep having rutsex.” 

His breathing grew shaky, his eyes hooded. “Because of me?”

“Because of you.” Biting her lip, she stepped even closer, their bodies nearly touching. Her hands splayed out on his chest, her palms gliding up the expanse of it until they rested on his shoulders. “I-I didn’t want to say anything either, not until your heat was over, but I feel something, too. I have for some time, and these past few days, being shacked up with you? I’ve really, really loved it. I almost said something yesterday, but I didn’t want to--”

“Risk ruining everything?” He shook his head. “No, you wouldn’t have, and I’m sorry I’ve been such a coward all this time. I should’ve said something before all of this happened--”

“And how would you have known this would happen, Ben? I don’t think it hurt us to wait. We’re still here, we still have time to explore whatever this is.” 

Then she rested her hand on his cheek, and he leaned into her touch, wanting nothing more than to just lose himself to the feeling of her. Maybe he would kiss her again and they’d just end up making out on the sofa for hours and hours, and just fade away out of existence. 

Kissing her, though, could wait. Actually, it had to. They needed to make it through this date first, a date in which they needed to talk about their feelings and put everything on the line; make sure this was what they wanted. They couldn’t just kiss forever, that would feel nice but accomplish nothing. Pressing their lips together was something they knew how to do very well at that point.

Actually trying to pursue a relationship? That was a bit harder.

“We should get going,” he told her, resting a hand over the one she had on his cheek, and stepping back so that they were properly holding hands. Her fingers folded around his, her thumb rubbing over the back of his knuckles in a reassuring gesture. “I know we have time but we don’t have an unlimited amount of it.”

Chuckling softly, she stepped forward, and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Yeah, let’s go. I’d like to spend a few hours making out with you on our couch afterward if that’s okay.”

“I think that’s the best way to spend an evening, Rey.”

*

The coffee place just two blocks down the street from their apartment wound up being the perfect fit. They spent more than an hour tucked away in a little booth in the back, the low lighting and soft music providing the perfect backdrop for them to relearn one another to. 

It wasn’t actually hard to do at all. She was and always had been the easiest person in the world for him to talk to. It was why they worked so well as roommates, friends, and why her helping him through his heat had gone so well. 

Every minute he spent in her company he was breathing easier, and it became apparent that they’d had nothing to worry about very early on. 

“Do you think we would’ve found our way here eventually if you hadn’t presented a second designation?” she asked him eventually, their cups long since empty, their fingers laced together beneath the table and on the bench as if they were keeping some secret. “Or do you think that this just opened our eyes?”

“We both know we felt something more for each other before this happened. I’ve felt something for you for… a while now. I think what happened here might’ve… expedited the process, but regardless of whether or not I knew what you looked like naked I think we always would’ve wound up here.” 

She gave him a laugh at that. “I think you may be right.”

“We would’ve danced around each other for a while… There would’ve been all these hidden looks and stolen glances, and maybe we would’ve almost kissed a few times, maybe we would’ve stayed up too late on the living room couch and woken up in each other’s arms.” He cupped her cheek in his free hand. “Maybe one day it would’ve gotten to be too much. Maybe we were both close to rut. Maybe we weren’t. Either way, one night I would’ve leaned in--” A kiss was pressed to her nose. “And I would’ve kissed you. We both would’ve been shy about it, but we would’ve wound up here anyway.”

His name fell quietly from her lips, then he shushed her with a kiss, their lips coming together for a fraction of a second before he smiled against them. “And I would’ve taken you home after, and made love to you for hours.”

“You would’ve?” she asked, a hope he knew all too well in her voice. 

“Of course.”

“What if we did that now? We finished our coffee.” Her fingers brushed against his skin as she kissed him again. “We could go home.”

“We could.” But neither of them moved. They both just sat there in their little booth, almost as if they were lost in their own little world for a moment. “I just… I don’t know this is--”

“It’s good, Ben,” she told him. “It’s really good. I just--are you sure this is what you want? There’s no other omega or---?”

Shutting her up with another kiss, he sighed. “No, I don’t think there will be. Just you.”

All she gave him in return was another nod, then she leaned into him a little further. “I think I can work with that.” Then a frown grew on her face. “But I’m going to need you to help me with my rut next month in return.”

Another round of laughter passed between them. “I would love to,” he replied, then he was kissing her again, their bodies melting together as they finally surrendered the last of their fear, and gave in to what they felt.

This was what they should’ve been doing all along, going out, kissing, maybe having lazy morning sex, and they had been so stupid and afraid. At least something had changed--at least  _ that _ had changed.

“Can we leave now?” 

“Just let me kiss you for another couple of minutes and I’ll think about it.”

“Ass.”

“You love me.”

“I do,” she said, then they were kissing again, just the way they should’ve been, the way they were always meant to be, and they finally took their relationship that extra step. 

It was the easiest step Ben had ever taken in his life, and even though his alpha instincts were kicking back in, he didn’t care. He was just so damn happy to have her in his arms, to hold her, kiss her, and love her, that all of his past worries didn’t matter. She was his alpha and he was hers, and maybe it wasn’t what biology expected of them, but it was without any shadow of a doubt, absolutely perfect. 


End file.
